On the 4th Saturday of every month, K and I help to serve breakfast to those in need at our church. Our church program is one adopted from the church blend that we experienced with a closed church in our area almost 2 years ago.
The program is fairly simple. If you feel you are in need, come. We will provide you with toiletries, laundry detergent, dish soap and toilet paper. We will serve you a hot breakfast on real plates with real silverware.
You do not have to qualify with some particular monetary proof. You come. We serve.
We have a lot of the same monthly visitors. We've been able to develop a lovely relationship with many of them.
We have appreciative visitors.
We have entitled visitors.
We have people who complain no matter what.
Today, we had a record crowd. We served 71 families and have basically averaged that out at probably 150 people served. (Since we have many double/triple trippers, my guess is at least 180 meals were served.)
We started serving a half hour early today since we are also hosting homeless families for the week. Another program our church is involved in helps to keep homeless family members together as a unit. They travel on to the center each day, so we needed to feed them to get them on their way early. The church member in charge of transport had no idea of serving time and was rather upset that we weren't serving breakfast at 8 AM. She could see that we were not ready. "The bulk of our donations come in during the 8 o'clock hour." She was irritated, but I told her friend, "As you stand here, you can see that we cannot make it go any faster." She agreed.
Anticipating a larger crowd, I decided to make two egg casseroles this morning. (I usually only make one.) M came trucking in with two bags of produce from a farmer co-worker, so I made some veggie cups to give out. I put everything in the oven this morning at 5:30 AM so that we could be there an hour early for our crowd.
Crowded it was.
There is one woman who we haven't seen for a few months. K and I call her The Sausage Lady. Others call her The Container Lady. She will come in and have us pile and I mean PILE food on her plate. She yells at us if we give her subpar pieces. (She doesn't like browned sausage.) She yells at us if we give her small pieces. She yells at us if we don't give her the piece she asked for. She yells at me if I cannot see (I'm short) that there are some extra bits left behind.
We have the Pancake Kids. There is a family of two adults and 8 rag tag lil kids. They are very polite. They have been taught to take only what you can eat. They have been taught that after you eat what is on your plate, you may have more. They do one pancake at a time. Each kid. Over and over.
We started running out of food at 9:15 AM. The two ovens and warmer were empty of their contents at 9:30 AM. We had to send someone out to buy more food. We went through 6 dozen eggs in less than a half hour. Usually, eggs are our fall back. At 9:55 AM, they called last pancakes.
"You can't! The pancake kids haven't been here yet! Last time they came at the last minute and we can't go without pancakes for them!"
In the meantime, The Sausage/Container lady was rounding on her third trip. She sits at a far back table, thinking that we cannot see that she brought a Market District freezer bag full of containers to place all of her food in. She comes back for more. She eats some, and containers more. Rinse and repeat. She wanted two pieces of a casserole. My serving mate told her that she'd have to come back around.
At 10:15 AM, the pancake kids arrived. One small scoop of eggs, one pancake, two sausages. Repeat x 8. They laughed. "You knew that they were coming. You wouldn't stop the pancakes." No I wouldn't.
You see, the last time we served, they were here when we broke everything down into take home containers and people could take food. They had no idea what was going on, but when I explained it, it was as if we handed their family a brand new car. They were so excited to have the extra food.
It comes time to break down what lil bit we had left. I start containering leftovers and low and behold, The Sausage/Container Lady rushes up. She grabs two containers, an empty and is standing waiting to have it filled. There are others standing behind her. I couldn't hold it in any longer. All morning, she saw our struggle to make sure we had enough to feed the masses. I paused with the counter ladies and said, "We must pray." I prayed that we would have enough food and patience.
"I know that you have other containers back at the table, too."
She looked at me and went on to get another container filled.
I went to bag up the remaining pancakes for the kids. 5 of them were standing in front of me. An older woman walked up behind them. She was holding two filled containers of food. She wanted the pancakes.
"Ma'am, I'm going to give these pancakes to the kids."
"BUT I WAS LATE TODAY AND I HAVEN'T HAD ANYTHING."
"Ma'am, you have two containers in your hands and these children have nothing."
She yelled at me again. I put two pancakes in a bag for her and told her, "I will be giving the rest of the pancakes to the children."
She mumbled something else crappy to me and went off.
Um, how low can you go? Container lady bugs me, but she has never stepped in to take food from a child.
I almost cried right there. I seriously could not get those pancakes packed up fast enough. I passed them on and they were eating them as they walked like they were a bag of chips. Those kiddos were so happy. All they wanted were some pancakes.
Several of us talked about it later. I don't regret anything I said. But, a point someone brought up-- How hungry do you have to be to take food from children?
M has referred to it as an "eat or be eaten" mentality. If you don't jump up and fight, you are going to starve.
Food insecurity. It is real. When do you say no? I guess that I hit that point today. I always said that if I had food in front of me, I would never say no. Now I have.
At 10:35 AM and after the dust had briefly settled after the great pancake denial, we had a woman at the counter asking for food for three women. "We just gave away the last of what we had." "But I am so hungry. We need food for three women. We are late, but you have to give us something. I'm just so hungry."
I got two of our men to bust out some pancakes and eggs. The woman was mad. She wanted the full spread at the end of the day.
"Ma'am, we ran short of some things today. We had a record crowd. The amount that we did have at the end, I was surprised that we did."
We served them, took care in making sure that they received their bags of goods and on the way out, I made sure to check the date for them for next month. I told them when and what times. "We do this on the 4th Saturday of the month."
Another volunteer chimed in, "Except for November and December when we shift it for the holidays."
"Well you DO something for the children at the holidays, DON'T YOU?"
"We actually do the same each day we serve."
"But I have three grandchildren who live with me." (None were with her at this time though.)
"I'm sorry ma'am, but we do the same we do every month."
Her friend piped in, "And we THANK YOU for everything that you do!"
Appreciation, not expecting more.
These ladies would have been back up for more, but I think that they got the hint that we served each of them a beautiful hot plate of food, despite having most everything broken down and cleaned. There will be next month. There will be expectations. There will be demands. Sometimes you just have to say no.
Showing posts with label Workin' for Jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Workin' for Jesus. Show all posts
Saturday, August 25, 2018
Friday, July 25, 2014
When "no soliciting" definitely means YOU!: "You got any kids?"
A month or so ago, Hubs was watching TV on the couch. K was doing something downstairs and I was doing something in the bedroom. A guy knocked and knocked on our front door. He wouldn't stop. Finally, Hubs answered the door. The guy's first line out of his mouth? "You got any kids?"
"Um, no."
Who comes to your door and asks such a thing but a creeper?
The guy had a girl with him and was soliciting for children in the neighborhood to come to his house for Backyard Bible Club. He gave Hubs the information and after Hubs closed the door, he came to me and said, "You'll never believe what just happened." He told me the story. He said that he didn't answer the door because it says "no soliciting" and people generally pick up on that.
Throughout the night and even the next day, Hubs would creep around a corner and say, "You got any kids?"
As we walked that night, we talked about it at length. We both decided that it would probably be good for me to write a letter to the sponsoring church to let them know our experience. Here's what I wrote:
What's your take on the Backyard Bible Club phenomenon? I understand the basic idea and if they are kids who you know, super. I'm just not a big fan.
"Um, no."
Who comes to your door and asks such a thing but a creeper?
The guy had a girl with him and was soliciting for children in the neighborhood to come to his house for Backyard Bible Club. He gave Hubs the information and after Hubs closed the door, he came to me and said, "You'll never believe what just happened." He told me the story. He said that he didn't answer the door because it says "no soliciting" and people generally pick up on that.
Throughout the night and even the next day, Hubs would creep around a corner and say, "You got any kids?"
As we walked that night, we talked about it at length. We both decided that it would probably be good for me to write a letter to the sponsoring church to let them know our experience. Here's what I wrote:
A few evenings ago, a gentleman and his daughter came to our home. Despite the fact that both of our doors have signs that say "no solicitors, please" on them, my husband said that they just wouldn't stop knocking. (We don't answer the door if it is someone we don't know.) The man's leading line when my husband finally got the beating on the door to stop was, "You got any kids?" My husband was taken aback a bit. We do have a child, but people shouldn't be coming door to door to shop for children. In this day and age, it just isn't safe for either the children nor the person asking. My husband said no. We were given a card anyway and the man and his child pressed on. When regaled with this story that concerned my husband, my comment was, "Who doesn't that besides a creeper?" We weren't the only ones concerned. [Our] neighbor . . . now has a large "no solicitors" sign posted to their front door. They are very protective of their child, too and he is even a prison guard. I fear that this individual isn't bringing people to you, but turning more people away.I realize now that I deleted the response, but the pastor said that it took some days for him to get back to me because he relayed the message to his outreach teams in charge of the BYBC. It rounded out to the fact that he and his peers decided that "you were bothered." It wasn't so much that I was bothered. Yes, we were bothered that we ask that people don't knock, but they do. Aimee and I were just having a conversation about knocking and not answering this morning. I understand that social convention suggests that you answer the door no matter what. However, there are home invasions and people who case houses and whatnot. It is my option whether I want to answer the door or not. I don't have to and Hubs doesn't have to. We've taught K NOT to answer the door if it is someone she doesn't know. Creepers are out there and it isn't up to me to find out who is and who isn't.
We are very active in our church. I understand wanting to bring children and their families to Christ. I've directed VBS for many years myself. I appreciate the enthusiasm and hard work that can be involved with such an endeavor.
The idea of backyard bible clubs being marketed to children and families unknown to your church is a sticky area. Your parishioner is willing to open up their home to strangers. That is a huge danger, especially when it says, "parents and guardians are invited to stay for refreshments." It also opens the club leader up to accusations. I understand that by spanning out to the surrounding areas to parishioners homes may seem like you are offering a less overwhelming, less judgmental way to lead into getting folks to the brick and mortar church building. It also opens the church up to a lot of potential liability later on.
We are in the - - - - area. We wish you and your church well, but wanted to bring our concerns to you. They aren't concerns of just our family, but of families on our street.
What's your take on the Backyard Bible Club phenomenon? I understand the basic idea and if they are kids who you know, super. I'm just not a big fan.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Divorcing a church.
This September will mark 3 years since we left our previous church. We loved that church. We had been there for 8 years, 4 with our now retired pastor and 4 with the replacement pastor. We loved Pastor D. He was a wonderful man and spoke to our hearts. Pastor M was someone who didn't sit real well with us from the very beginning. We thought it would iron out, but 4 years later and with much church drama, we quietly slipped out the back door.
You see, we were very frustrated by many things.
1. The pastor would preach through one book/section of the bible at a time, not deviating for things such as holidays or events such as 9/11. The last Mother's Day sermon we were there for was titled, "Gouged eye, severed hand." It went on about wives needing to be submissive, addressing unfaithfulness in marriages and how woman, quite frankly, dress far too provocatively. After the sermon, there was a line of people waiting to speak to him. I chose to e-mail a letter telling him that those are sensitive subjects and that while anytime would have been a little tricky, to do so on a Mother's Day where moms have brought their children as guests with them, I probably would have chosen a less controversial and chewy subject.
2. It was his way, period. Because of this, he just removed people from their ongoing projects without speaking to them. Those people left. I understand that people need to change things when they come in. That's fine. It's not fine to run the congregation over.
3. There was a lot of talking behind the backs of others, particularly two women who had been cheated on. They were not the cheaters. Their husbands were invited to remain in the church while they were going to be asked publicly about the incident/s and asked to leave the church before the congregation. Hmmmm, my bible talks about unfaithfulness differently than his does.
4. His wife never attended anything and if she did, she acted put out by it. As a pastor's wife, I know you can't attend everything, but your attendance is required in some circumstances.
5. They wouldn't leave their children with anyone for anyone to watch-- not even in our nursery that was manned by qualified parishioners.
We had remained removed from the church up until just a few weeks ago. K wanted to attend VBS there and I was fine with it. She went to 4 days of the 5. The day that I dropped her off, the preschool director snubbed me. When I went to leave, I reached out for her elbow and said, "I hope that you have a good day." I was sincere. Truly. I was on the preschool board with her and we had done a lot of different things together in the church. Her giving me the silent treatment stung, but I knew that I would get some of that when coming back in.
The end of the week brought the VBS family picnic of sorts. We came up the back hallway, I waved at the youth pastor and he snubbed me. I waved two other times at the preschool director and was snubbed again. There were other folks that I saw and smiled at. I didn't want to continue with the awkward wave thing. There were some people who just turned away from me. Quite Christianly of them for sure.
There is always a "however."
1. K was treated wonderfully and truly enjoyed her week. Her class was taught by the retired pastor's wife.
2. One of the younger parishioners grabbed me up and hugged me.
3. The woman who I previously directed VBS with grabbed me up and hugged me. We got to talk for a good while. I found out that she was co-directing with the preschool director. "You know, I just haven't been able to catch Karen this week. Please tell her thank you for me."
There have been times I've run into people from our previous church. There were times that they were just wonderful. There were a few people who attended the rummage sale that I was in charge of just 3 weeks ago. There is a parent who I kept running into at the summer library programs. I've run into a few people at the grocery.
I did run into a couple at the grocery. The husband was talking to me, the wife came up and started singing the praises of the new pastor. I told her that I heard that he was just wonderful and how happy I was for them. When I said that we were attending the Methodist church across the street and came forward for membership a couple of years ago, she literally turned on her heel and walked away. Wow.
Will K attend VBS there any more? Absolutely. I have no problem with that. She enjoyed herself and learned a lot. Will I be jumping in line to attend anything there? Nah. I'm good. We have a church home and people who accept us for who we are.
You see, we were very frustrated by many things.
1. The pastor would preach through one book/section of the bible at a time, not deviating for things such as holidays or events such as 9/11. The last Mother's Day sermon we were there for was titled, "Gouged eye, severed hand." It went on about wives needing to be submissive, addressing unfaithfulness in marriages and how woman, quite frankly, dress far too provocatively. After the sermon, there was a line of people waiting to speak to him. I chose to e-mail a letter telling him that those are sensitive subjects and that while anytime would have been a little tricky, to do so on a Mother's Day where moms have brought their children as guests with them, I probably would have chosen a less controversial and chewy subject.
2. It was his way, period. Because of this, he just removed people from their ongoing projects without speaking to them. Those people left. I understand that people need to change things when they come in. That's fine. It's not fine to run the congregation over.
3. There was a lot of talking behind the backs of others, particularly two women who had been cheated on. They were not the cheaters. Their husbands were invited to remain in the church while they were going to be asked publicly about the incident/s and asked to leave the church before the congregation. Hmmmm, my bible talks about unfaithfulness differently than his does.
4. His wife never attended anything and if she did, she acted put out by it. As a pastor's wife, I know you can't attend everything, but your attendance is required in some circumstances.
5. They wouldn't leave their children with anyone for anyone to watch-- not even in our nursery that was manned by qualified parishioners.
We had remained removed from the church up until just a few weeks ago. K wanted to attend VBS there and I was fine with it. She went to 4 days of the 5. The day that I dropped her off, the preschool director snubbed me. When I went to leave, I reached out for her elbow and said, "I hope that you have a good day." I was sincere. Truly. I was on the preschool board with her and we had done a lot of different things together in the church. Her giving me the silent treatment stung, but I knew that I would get some of that when coming back in.
The end of the week brought the VBS family picnic of sorts. We came up the back hallway, I waved at the youth pastor and he snubbed me. I waved two other times at the preschool director and was snubbed again. There were other folks that I saw and smiled at. I didn't want to continue with the awkward wave thing. There were some people who just turned away from me. Quite Christianly of them for sure.
There is always a "however."
1. K was treated wonderfully and truly enjoyed her week. Her class was taught by the retired pastor's wife.
2. One of the younger parishioners grabbed me up and hugged me.
3. The woman who I previously directed VBS with grabbed me up and hugged me. We got to talk for a good while. I found out that she was co-directing with the preschool director. "You know, I just haven't been able to catch Karen this week. Please tell her thank you for me."
There have been times I've run into people from our previous church. There were times that they were just wonderful. There were a few people who attended the rummage sale that I was in charge of just 3 weeks ago. There is a parent who I kept running into at the summer library programs. I've run into a few people at the grocery.
I did run into a couple at the grocery. The husband was talking to me, the wife came up and started singing the praises of the new pastor. I told her that I heard that he was just wonderful and how happy I was for them. When I said that we were attending the Methodist church across the street and came forward for membership a couple of years ago, she literally turned on her heel and walked away. Wow.
Will K attend VBS there any more? Absolutely. I have no problem with that. She enjoyed herself and learned a lot. Will I be jumping in line to attend anything there? Nah. I'm good. We have a church home and people who accept us for who we are.
Monday, June 23, 2014
The rummage sale report.
$4,231. That is the amount we made from selling all of those miscellaneous items that came from homes, garages, basements and more. That's a lot of money to go toward the building loan tab was what we made from discards.
That, my friends, is the Lord at work.
Doug, spouse of previous rummage coordinator, told me that one of the church ladies told him how pleased she was with the job that I did. "Amy, understand that from - - - that is high praise." "She told me that and I kind of gathered that." She's not one to praise, so when she does you take it and thank.
Incidentally, she keeps hugging me. She is a past president of the PTA that I just stepped down as president of. I think that was a big in for me. I had a number of the older folks, including the previous principal of K's school, tell me that they really appreciated that I let them do their own thing. "Dr. G, it isn't something for me to micromanage. It wasn't something that I needed to build and it wasn't something that was broken. Everyone knew what they always did and I just supported them in continuing their good work." "That hasn't always been the case." "I know."
There were several occasions when I had ladies come, introduce themselves to me and ask what I wanted them to do. "Pat, what is it that you've always done?" "Clothing." "Then Pat, go ahead and do what you always do." She looked at me so relieved. If they feel comfortable and have a way of organization and flow, who am I to "fix" their system?
Next year will be even better. I've earned trust. People know who we are now. (K, me and Hubs.) We have two services, but we only attend one. Between seeing K and me in front of the church now twice in the last month and Hubs come to break down and haul sale leftovers, we are now recognizable faces.
It stunned me. K offered to come up with me. On Sunday, the church was packed! She wanted to announce how much we made from the sale and how much the youth had made from their concession sales. She did a great job! I support her in her want to speak before a crowd of people. Not everyone is comfortable with that and if she can do that at the age of 10, hopefully that will stick with her. I was always scared to death. It wasn't until my parents had me participate in a few pageants (not like T&T) did I develop an ability to speak to people that I don't know and to talk in front of a crowd. Speaking to crowds is still not my absolute favorite thing, but at least it doesn't paralyze me in fear anymore.
So there we go. We were successful and the rummage sale volunteers want me back. I have no problem with that. It also helps to teach my daughter how to serve and that sometimes serving is hard work, not always the cleanest of things and how to work with people with different personalities.
That, my friends, is the Lord at work.
Doug, spouse of previous rummage coordinator, told me that one of the church ladies told him how pleased she was with the job that I did. "Amy, understand that from - - - that is high praise." "She told me that and I kind of gathered that." She's not one to praise, so when she does you take it and thank.
Incidentally, she keeps hugging me. She is a past president of the PTA that I just stepped down as president of. I think that was a big in for me. I had a number of the older folks, including the previous principal of K's school, tell me that they really appreciated that I let them do their own thing. "Dr. G, it isn't something for me to micromanage. It wasn't something that I needed to build and it wasn't something that was broken. Everyone knew what they always did and I just supported them in continuing their good work." "That hasn't always been the case." "I know."
There were several occasions when I had ladies come, introduce themselves to me and ask what I wanted them to do. "Pat, what is it that you've always done?" "Clothing." "Then Pat, go ahead and do what you always do." She looked at me so relieved. If they feel comfortable and have a way of organization and flow, who am I to "fix" their system?
Next year will be even better. I've earned trust. People know who we are now. (K, me and Hubs.) We have two services, but we only attend one. Between seeing K and me in front of the church now twice in the last month and Hubs come to break down and haul sale leftovers, we are now recognizable faces.
It stunned me. K offered to come up with me. On Sunday, the church was packed! She wanted to announce how much we made from the sale and how much the youth had made from their concession sales. She did a great job! I support her in her want to speak before a crowd of people. Not everyone is comfortable with that and if she can do that at the age of 10, hopefully that will stick with her. I was always scared to death. It wasn't until my parents had me participate in a few pageants (not like T&T) did I develop an ability to speak to people that I don't know and to talk in front of a crowd. Speaking to crowds is still not my absolute favorite thing, but at least it doesn't paralyze me in fear anymore.
So there we go. We were successful and the rummage sale volunteers want me back. I have no problem with that. It also helps to teach my daughter how to serve and that sometimes serving is hard work, not always the cleanest of things and how to work with people with different personalities.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Reverend Karen's retirement.
I didn't expect it really. I should have known. I went without Kleenex. :sigh: Most of the sermon there were tears in my eyes and rolling down my cheeks.
We all cried. I doubt that there was a dry eye in the house.
Rev. Karen has been with our church for 21 years. Now, we've been there a little over 2 1/2 years, but it really hit us hard.
Rev. Karen preached on Ephesians 6:10-20. She preached to a packed house.
She cried.
We cried.
We had a potluck afterwards. We were able to present her with many wonderful gifts from the congregation, but the one most special (at least I think) is that our Family Life Center is now named after her and her husband.
I would say that we all ate, but she was so busy socializing that she didn't get to. We were trying to pull a plate together in the end. I told her that it was like when you get married. You know that the food is there. You hear that it was good, but you didn't get a bite. (At least that's what happened at my wedding.)
We are a congregation slightly in flux. Reverend Joe starts on July 6. We'll have an interim pastor next week. Rev. Joe is wonderful and has a great family full of kids. We bought them a parsonage probably 8 blocks away from the church. He is young. He is energetic.
While we are sad to see Rev. Karen go, her journey doesn't end here. She and her husband will be traveling the US with an RV in order to serve God and help others wherever they are called. Rev. Karen and Tom may end up in a service at your church. Who knows?
We all cried. I doubt that there was a dry eye in the house.
Rev. Karen has been with our church for 21 years. Now, we've been there a little over 2 1/2 years, but it really hit us hard.
Rev. Karen preached on Ephesians 6:10-20. She preached to a packed house.
She cried.
We cried.
We had a potluck afterwards. We were able to present her with many wonderful gifts from the congregation, but the one most special (at least I think) is that our Family Life Center is now named after her and her husband.
I would say that we all ate, but she was so busy socializing that she didn't get to. We were trying to pull a plate together in the end. I told her that it was like when you get married. You know that the food is there. You hear that it was good, but you didn't get a bite. (At least that's what happened at my wedding.)
We are a congregation slightly in flux. Reverend Joe starts on July 6. We'll have an interim pastor next week. Rev. Joe is wonderful and has a great family full of kids. We bought them a parsonage probably 8 blocks away from the church. He is young. He is energetic.
While we are sad to see Rev. Karen go, her journey doesn't end here. She and her husband will be traveling the US with an RV in order to serve God and help others wherever they are called. Rev. Karen and Tom may end up in a service at your church. Who knows?
Friday, June 20, 2014
The church rummage sale.
Hello. I'm in charge of the church rummage sale. I have been eating, breathing and sleeping rummage and all of its greatness. I've gone in the morning, gone to work and went back. M-W were days that I pulled 12 1/2 - 13 hour days. The sale has reminded me of the Gilmore Girls episode, Concert Interruptus. In that episode, she was in charge of the town rummage sale, but took those donations at her house. While these donations didn't come to my house, they did come to my house of worship and there was A LOT of stuff.
I have placed ads.
I have begged for transportation for items and only after I accidentally shed tears while talking to a few of the church men was that handled.
I have driven to hither and yon to pick things up. Incidentally, I've found that older folks don't give good directions and it concerns me that the few that gave me directions are also people who drive.
I've been declined pick-up by the general charities that do such things, so we had to rent a U Haul.
I have had a troupe of volunteers come every single day. They have bagged, sorted, tossed, arranged, tagged and resorted things. They were all truly quite a blessing. Despite my coming a half hour before the "scheduled" work time, they were always there before me and there before I got there in the evenings. Often, people shut the doors with me.
I had one volunteer who was frankly a rather tough nut to crack. She apologized for being a pain in my side and we've come to an understanding and mutual respect.
I made lunch for everyone on Thursday. They all liked it. K made an absolutely wonderful butter cake with buttercream frosting. :licking lips: Every single piece of that cake went.
Today was day one of our sale. Most people were wonderful. I did have someone want to skip ahead and to purchase items in advance by a half hour. I told them that the sale started at 9 AM. "But people previous years. . . " No. No, they didn't. I know.
I had a man offer me a dollar for a bed frame when it was marked for $15. I told him no that it was marked $15. "Well I'm not going to pay that!" "I'll put it back."
We've sold couches, tables, TVs and outdoor tools. We've sold clothing, knick-knacks, electronics, jewelry and more. It's amazing what has gone out the door.
So far, we've made $3200 to go towards the building fund. (They put an addition on 9 years ago and we're still paying on it.)
Today, I had a parishioner call about tables. "There are no tables down in the Fellowship Hall." "No, they are all at [the sale.]"
"But we're having a party tomorrow at noon."
We sorted out what tables could go and whatnot. "Diane, you do know that we have our bag sale tomorrow at 12:45."
"Really?"
So during our closeout sale, there'll be a birthday party down the hall. I told her that there may be issues with parking. "Oh, really?" Yes. You open the doors for the bag sale and get out of the way or the people will pick you clean and leave you for dead. This is the same lady who gave her friend information to call me to come pick up her yard sale leftovers. Those yard sale leftovers were over 30 miles away. I will now ask where they are located before I commit to going to get items. The items donated? Most were not of good quality.
I also have the U Haul coming, Habitat for Humanity and a local organization that takes in refugees in the area. I just don't want to hear about how their party was negatively impacted by our presence when they should have known and were told that the sale was scheduled far in advance.
Wow.
We're working for Jesus and will continue to do so. We're making money to put on the building tab. That can't be a bad thing at all.
I have placed ads.
I have begged for transportation for items and only after I accidentally shed tears while talking to a few of the church men was that handled.
I have driven to hither and yon to pick things up. Incidentally, I've found that older folks don't give good directions and it concerns me that the few that gave me directions are also people who drive.
I've been declined pick-up by the general charities that do such things, so we had to rent a U Haul.
I have had a troupe of volunteers come every single day. They have bagged, sorted, tossed, arranged, tagged and resorted things. They were all truly quite a blessing. Despite my coming a half hour before the "scheduled" work time, they were always there before me and there before I got there in the evenings. Often, people shut the doors with me.
I had one volunteer who was frankly a rather tough nut to crack. She apologized for being a pain in my side and we've come to an understanding and mutual respect.
I made lunch for everyone on Thursday. They all liked it. K made an absolutely wonderful butter cake with buttercream frosting. :licking lips: Every single piece of that cake went.
Today was day one of our sale. Most people were wonderful. I did have someone want to skip ahead and to purchase items in advance by a half hour. I told them that the sale started at 9 AM. "But people previous years. . . " No. No, they didn't. I know.
I had a man offer me a dollar for a bed frame when it was marked for $15. I told him no that it was marked $15. "Well I'm not going to pay that!" "I'll put it back."
We've sold couches, tables, TVs and outdoor tools. We've sold clothing, knick-knacks, electronics, jewelry and more. It's amazing what has gone out the door.
So far, we've made $3200 to go towards the building fund. (They put an addition on 9 years ago and we're still paying on it.)
Today, I had a parishioner call about tables. "There are no tables down in the Fellowship Hall." "No, they are all at [the sale.]"
"But we're having a party tomorrow at noon."
We sorted out what tables could go and whatnot. "Diane, you do know that we have our bag sale tomorrow at 12:45."
"Really?"
So during our closeout sale, there'll be a birthday party down the hall. I told her that there may be issues with parking. "Oh, really?" Yes. You open the doors for the bag sale and get out of the way or the people will pick you clean and leave you for dead. This is the same lady who gave her friend information to call me to come pick up her yard sale leftovers. Those yard sale leftovers were over 30 miles away. I will now ask where they are located before I commit to going to get items. The items donated? Most were not of good quality.
I also have the U Haul coming, Habitat for Humanity and a local organization that takes in refugees in the area. I just don't want to hear about how their party was negatively impacted by our presence when they should have known and were told that the sale was scheduled far in advance.
Wow.
We're working for Jesus and will continue to do so. We're making money to put on the building tab. That can't be a bad thing at all.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
I touched hundreds of little faces.
We had our Santa Shop and Winter Wonderland event at the school yesterday.
Sweet Pete, I was tired.
I was the face painter. I had a few young ladies helping me, but it was primarily my gig. I had 4 designs for them to choose from. Still, I had the "but I want a monster!" "Darlin', you can choose from these different designs here. Would you like a snowflake, an ornament, a star or a tree?" "I want a monster."
I was not paid by the hour as a party painter. I was a free volunteer and happy to do so. Still, to keep the line moving, I had to be that lady who made them stick to the four designs. Oh, and I had to have them stick to the one cheek per kid rule.
I would say I was no fun, but I did sing silly songs to kids. Some were impressed. Some could care less. Still, I had my hands all over hundreds of little faces.
The good news is that no one bit me. :)
I'm preparing to go be the cupcake decorating coordinator at our church. We're having a Happy Birthday Jesus party and it is me, and me alone, who will be manning the sprinkles and icing.
Lord be with me.
Still, I'm happy to do it and we want the kids to have fun. We anticipate 70 children, but since we put out over 1600 invites, we're hoping for a lot more.
Frosting knives raised and prayers of patience. Have a great day!
ETA: We went. We enjoy. We iced, sprinkled, sang and ate. We ended up with 96 extra cupcakes, so we had the older kids ice and sprinkle the additional cupcakes so that we could put them up for our Family Promise families that will be arriving this weekend. Something tells me that they won't be in a want for cupcakes any time soon.
Sweet Pete, I was tired.
I was the face painter. I had a few young ladies helping me, but it was primarily my gig. I had 4 designs for them to choose from. Still, I had the "but I want a monster!" "Darlin', you can choose from these different designs here. Would you like a snowflake, an ornament, a star or a tree?" "I want a monster."
I was not paid by the hour as a party painter. I was a free volunteer and happy to do so. Still, to keep the line moving, I had to be that lady who made them stick to the four designs. Oh, and I had to have them stick to the one cheek per kid rule.
I would say I was no fun, but I did sing silly songs to kids. Some were impressed. Some could care less. Still, I had my hands all over hundreds of little faces.
The good news is that no one bit me. :)
I'm preparing to go be the cupcake decorating coordinator at our church. We're having a Happy Birthday Jesus party and it is me, and me alone, who will be manning the sprinkles and icing.
Lord be with me.
Still, I'm happy to do it and we want the kids to have fun. We anticipate 70 children, but since we put out over 1600 invites, we're hoping for a lot more.
Frosting knives raised and prayers of patience. Have a great day!
ETA: We went. We enjoy. We iced, sprinkled, sang and ate. We ended up with 96 extra cupcakes, so we had the older kids ice and sprinkle the additional cupcakes so that we could put them up for our Family Promise families that will be arriving this weekend. Something tells me that they won't be in a want for cupcakes any time soon.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Almost there.
We've had Vacation Bible School all week. It has been a wonderful week with children that were so well behaved, very receptive to The Word and just truly a blessing all the way around.
That blessing has made me dog tired.
I sit here with a light drizzle falling outside, glad that while we have a public pool pass, we were given a break for this Friday's pool day. I'm wiped out. I worked M-W, on top of dealing with VBS in the AM from 8:15 AM ish - 12 Noonish. Monday, I came back and built a covered wagon out of a refrigerator box. Tuesday, we had a belated Father's Day dinner with my in-law's. Wednesday, I had to go out to DSW to return some ill-fitting shoes. While on my way, there was an accident that occurred right next to me. I had to hit the gas to avoid being hit by flying debris and after I cleared the accident area, I realized no one was stopping to help. I turned around, blocked the two turn lanes with my truck, checked everyone's status (they were all okay), got them moved off to the side, then I got the delight of directing traffic before the police showed up, since doofus people thought it was fine to pass on the left regardless to the fact that it was an obnoxiously large intersection and they knew darned well that they should go to the right. When the officer showed up, I gave him a quick low-down, told him that I wouldn't serve as a good witness as I saw it as it was happening, but not what really caused it and pressed on. I'm glad to report that I did make it to the store to return the shoes, didn't find any to replace them with and went on to the health food store to do a spot of shopping. Prices were scary high in there, so I picked up a few things (including dinner) and went on my way home. Yesterday was VBS, bringing a friend home for lunch, then taking both girls up to the library for summer reading club, back home for a short time, then on to the dealership for an oil change and recall repairs.
I was so tired that I nearly fell asleep sitting up in the chair at the dealership.
K- has been affected by the non-stop action this week. Last night, she hit a rough spot with behavior (belligerence and whatnot) and we decided that before she got herself into hot water, she may want to consider the idea of going to bed early. She's usually an 8-8:30 PM girl, but she's been collecting lightning bugs at night, which has pushed her time to about 9:30 PM. Whooo boy, could I tell. She went to bed at about 7:30 PM and fell asleep soon thereafter.
We're home on a bit of a break. I'll wash the floors, finish the bath and get the laundry drying. We have our Best of the West Final Fest this evening, so we need to be back at the church at 5:30 PM. We have a Lowe's building workshop tomorrow, but other than that, I think our schedule is clear. I think that I just might sleep in.
Until 8 AM.
I think.
Have a great weekend!
That blessing has made me dog tired.
I sit here with a light drizzle falling outside, glad that while we have a public pool pass, we were given a break for this Friday's pool day. I'm wiped out. I worked M-W, on top of dealing with VBS in the AM from 8:15 AM ish - 12 Noonish. Monday, I came back and built a covered wagon out of a refrigerator box. Tuesday, we had a belated Father's Day dinner with my in-law's. Wednesday, I had to go out to DSW to return some ill-fitting shoes. While on my way, there was an accident that occurred right next to me. I had to hit the gas to avoid being hit by flying debris and after I cleared the accident area, I realized no one was stopping to help. I turned around, blocked the two turn lanes with my truck, checked everyone's status (they were all okay), got them moved off to the side, then I got the delight of directing traffic before the police showed up, since doofus people thought it was fine to pass on the left regardless to the fact that it was an obnoxiously large intersection and they knew darned well that they should go to the right. When the officer showed up, I gave him a quick low-down, told him that I wouldn't serve as a good witness as I saw it as it was happening, but not what really caused it and pressed on. I'm glad to report that I did make it to the store to return the shoes, didn't find any to replace them with and went on to the health food store to do a spot of shopping. Prices were scary high in there, so I picked up a few things (including dinner) and went on my way home. Yesterday was VBS, bringing a friend home for lunch, then taking both girls up to the library for summer reading club, back home for a short time, then on to the dealership for an oil change and recall repairs.
I was so tired that I nearly fell asleep sitting up in the chair at the dealership.
K- has been affected by the non-stop action this week. Last night, she hit a rough spot with behavior (belligerence and whatnot) and we decided that before she got herself into hot water, she may want to consider the idea of going to bed early. She's usually an 8-8:30 PM girl, but she's been collecting lightning bugs at night, which has pushed her time to about 9:30 PM. Whooo boy, could I tell. She went to bed at about 7:30 PM and fell asleep soon thereafter.
We're home on a bit of a break. I'll wash the floors, finish the bath and get the laundry drying. We have our Best of the West Final Fest this evening, so we need to be back at the church at 5:30 PM. We have a Lowe's building workshop tomorrow, but other than that, I think our schedule is clear. I think that I just might sleep in.
Until 8 AM.
I think.
Have a great weekend!
Monday, June 20, 2011
Jesus needs me.
See you next week!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Flaming styrofoam and other weekend tales.
On Saturday, the alarm went off at 6:45 AM. Hubs thought I was crazy, but I was a woman with a plan. We were going to Amish Country for the day and I knew that we needed to get there before the buses. We got out the door at 8:10 AM, arrived at the first destination at 9:10 AM (I have a heavy foot) and were pleased that we were shopping amongst the locals and Amish only. Tourists hadn't arrived!
After stocking up on a variety of bulk items, we went down the street to the chocolate factory. K- wanted to get chocolates for both her teacher and her Kindergarten teacher for Teacher Appreciation Week. (Yes, I realize now it was last week, but there was nothing sent home about it and I thought it was this week. Mrs. S- will get her daily surprises this week. Better than nothing, right?!) Both ladies will be getting a small box of hand picked and handmade chocolates.
We had just a little bit of time to kill while waiting for the restaurant (it's a delicate time balance), so we ran into the little shop across the street. We scored two more Japanese erasers for K-, then it was time for lunch. (Brunch sounds different than what we had.) We were able to take advantage of their breakfast buffet and the salad bar. Believe me, the Amish restaurant we go to is wonderful and two full bars of Amish goodness is like angels singing to you when you come into the door. Hubs decided to break away from his usual boring diet and he ate. And ate. And ate. His digestive wellness is begging to differ today. The later mentioned flaming styrofoam and 4 steam burns speaks of how Hubs falls to pieces when he isn't feeling well.
We stopped a few other places, then went on to the Wilderness Center for some warbling. (What I call it. The Warblers are migrating and you can get some good birding in.) When we arrived, we discovered that they were having a native plant sale, so I had to support them. :insert twisting arm: I purchased Blazing Star, Cup Plant and Aster. We did some lovely birding right from their viewing area. Hubs was impressed that I saw a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, which is not commonly seen in our area.
Hubs and K- were kind enough, on a second night, to come to church to help me bang out the VBS road sign. The logo was easier than in previous years, and I admit that I skipped the additional wording included. We were able to get it done in two nights, which is amazingly fast. What a wonderful thing to have that done! All the other years took a lot longer. Like this one. Yes, I'll take a photo once it hits the lawn.
Mother's Day started leisurely. Hubs and K- brought me gifts and breakfast in bed. We went birding instead of going to church. (We were in a quiet place that God made.) I had a thrift store coupon, so we cruised by there. (I got some lovely shirts.) We made it home in enough time for everyone to have lunch, I made taco meat and plunked that in the crock-pot, then we shuttled off to the soccer field! It was while I was making lunch that Hubs yells, "Amy!" in a way that says I did something wrong. I looked over and saw flames in the microwave. He was cooking Boca burgers, got one package of Amish cookies out of the microwave, but not the other and the styrofoam actually caught on fire. Flames. He took the flaming cookies out and pitched them into the drive. I walked out with the flaming glass portion of the lazy susan and got it out outside. I should add that I store cookies in the microwave sometimes to keep them out of sight of K- because she would beg for them all the time.
Hubs was so upset that they didn't cancel soccer on Mother's Day and he couldn't believe that they scheduled pictures to boot! Because the ball bounced off of her and into the goal, K- accidentally scored a point for the other team. Oops!
We ran home to have dinner, ran to the store to get a few things and stopped by my mom's house. (MIL was out of town. We'll be Mother's Daying on Tuesday.)
That brings me to now. I have a pile of laundry on the bed to fold as I watch Celebrity Apprentice. Excuse me, as we all know that though Mother's Day is a celebration of mothers, it certainly doesn't mean that the laundry is going to do itself.
Have a great day!
After stocking up on a variety of bulk items, we went down the street to the chocolate factory. K- wanted to get chocolates for both her teacher and her Kindergarten teacher for Teacher Appreciation Week. (Yes, I realize now it was last week, but there was nothing sent home about it and I thought it was this week. Mrs. S- will get her daily surprises this week. Better than nothing, right?!) Both ladies will be getting a small box of hand picked and handmade chocolates.
We had just a little bit of time to kill while waiting for the restaurant (it's a delicate time balance), so we ran into the little shop across the street. We scored two more Japanese erasers for K-, then it was time for lunch. (Brunch sounds different than what we had.) We were able to take advantage of their breakfast buffet and the salad bar. Believe me, the Amish restaurant we go to is wonderful and two full bars of Amish goodness is like angels singing to you when you come into the door. Hubs decided to break away from his usual boring diet and he ate. And ate. And ate. His digestive wellness is begging to differ today. The later mentioned flaming styrofoam and 4 steam burns speaks of how Hubs falls to pieces when he isn't feeling well.
We stopped a few other places, then went on to the Wilderness Center for some warbling. (What I call it. The Warblers are migrating and you can get some good birding in.) When we arrived, we discovered that they were having a native plant sale, so I had to support them. :insert twisting arm: I purchased Blazing Star, Cup Plant and Aster. We did some lovely birding right from their viewing area. Hubs was impressed that I saw a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, which is not commonly seen in our area.
Hubs and K- were kind enough, on a second night, to come to church to help me bang out the VBS road sign. The logo was easier than in previous years, and I admit that I skipped the additional wording included. We were able to get it done in two nights, which is amazingly fast. What a wonderful thing to have that done! All the other years took a lot longer. Like this one. Yes, I'll take a photo once it hits the lawn.
Mother's Day started leisurely. Hubs and K- brought me gifts and breakfast in bed. We went birding instead of going to church. (We were in a quiet place that God made.) I had a thrift store coupon, so we cruised by there. (I got some lovely shirts.) We made it home in enough time for everyone to have lunch, I made taco meat and plunked that in the crock-pot, then we shuttled off to the soccer field! It was while I was making lunch that Hubs yells, "Amy!" in a way that says I did something wrong. I looked over and saw flames in the microwave. He was cooking Boca burgers, got one package of Amish cookies out of the microwave, but not the other and the styrofoam actually caught on fire. Flames. He took the flaming cookies out and pitched them into the drive. I walked out with the flaming glass portion of the lazy susan and got it out outside. I should add that I store cookies in the microwave sometimes to keep them out of sight of K- because she would beg for them all the time.
Hubs was so upset that they didn't cancel soccer on Mother's Day and he couldn't believe that they scheduled pictures to boot! Because the ball bounced off of her and into the goal, K- accidentally scored a point for the other team. Oops!
We ran home to have dinner, ran to the store to get a few things and stopped by my mom's house. (MIL was out of town. We'll be Mother's Daying on Tuesday.)
That brings me to now. I have a pile of laundry on the bed to fold as I watch Celebrity Apprentice. Excuse me, as we all know that though Mother's Day is a celebration of mothers, it certainly doesn't mean that the laundry is going to do itself.
Have a great day!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Lenten sacrifice
Up until I was 8, I was Catholic. I did the baptism, First Holy Communion and CCD. When my parents divorced, we left the Catholic church and joined the Baptist church. (Yes, quite a huge difference.) The church that I grew up in and the church that we attend now do not do any type of Lent sacrifice through the season of Lent.
If I'm not saying all of this right, just be patient.
At any rate, my friend Rachael has proposed on her blog that she will be getting off ye ole box for Lent. Not all together, but she won't be on the amount of time she usually is.
Rachael and I talk all the time. Sometimes we're on at the same time.
So, I've decided to buddy up with Rachael and do a bit of Lenten-ness myself. The box? I'm not turning it off all the way. I am, however, not going to be so pressed about hoping online and frittering away the time that I do. My comment on her blog was that I feel like I was doing really well. Then, we were slammed by a winter that will never end. The evenings that we would usually walk have been replaced by homework. K- is in bed between 8-8:30 PM, Hubs and I either watch a movie or split ways and he plays video games and I fritter time away on the box.
Daylight savings time is coming this weekend (HOORAY!) and that signals my time to be a bit more productive.
Last night, K- was suffering from an ear ache. I'm happy to say that it is feeling better, but she just wanted to snuggle into her bed and read. And read. And read. She read almost all of Junie B and the Stupid Smelly Bus. (Yes, she knows that stupid is not a word that is okay.) I think that I logged her reading for an hour and a half. She read to Hubs and me. I took a bath and she read to Hubs. He took a shower, then she read to me. He had to get up before 5 AM, so he got into bed early and she came in and read to him and me again. Then, she read in bed to herself for probably another half hour. It is important for her to read to herself, but it is also important for her to read to us. That's not only for the atagirl, but the correction of a word or two when she struggles.
If I'm on the box, that can't happen.
The blogging? It'll be not every day, but I'll be around.
Have a great day!
If I'm not saying all of this right, just be patient.
At any rate, my friend Rachael has proposed on her blog that she will be getting off ye ole box for Lent. Not all together, but she won't be on the amount of time she usually is.
Rachael and I talk all the time. Sometimes we're on at the same time.
So, I've decided to buddy up with Rachael and do a bit of Lenten-ness myself. The box? I'm not turning it off all the way. I am, however, not going to be so pressed about hoping online and frittering away the time that I do. My comment on her blog was that I feel like I was doing really well. Then, we were slammed by a winter that will never end. The evenings that we would usually walk have been replaced by homework. K- is in bed between 8-8:30 PM, Hubs and I either watch a movie or split ways and he plays video games and I fritter time away on the box.
Daylight savings time is coming this weekend (HOORAY!) and that signals my time to be a bit more productive.
Last night, K- was suffering from an ear ache. I'm happy to say that it is feeling better, but she just wanted to snuggle into her bed and read. And read. And read. She read almost all of Junie B and the Stupid Smelly Bus. (Yes, she knows that stupid is not a word that is okay.) I think that I logged her reading for an hour and a half. She read to Hubs and me. I took a bath and she read to Hubs. He took a shower, then she read to me. He had to get up before 5 AM, so he got into bed early and she came in and read to him and me again. Then, she read in bed to herself for probably another half hour. It is important for her to read to herself, but it is also important for her to read to us. That's not only for the atagirl, but the correction of a word or two when she struggles.
If I'm on the box, that can't happen.
The blogging? It'll be not every day, but I'll be around.
Have a great day!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Nothing says, "Jesus loves you!" like a good VBS head lice check.
It started last night at about 10:30 PM. My sister's friend called stating that she thought that her daughter got lice at our VBS. My sister called me. Since it was a suspected case with nothing afoot to speak of (including my sister's children and my child coming up free of feet), we were thinking that perhaps she was in a state of hypochondria. Still, this AM, I pulled the director aside and told her.
The VBS teacher asked my niece why her friend wasn't there today. She stated that J- was sick. The teacher inquired more as to what was wrong. That was when my niece whispered to her, "J-'s mom thinks that she found bugs in her hair."
At that point, we thought it best to pull the class (as per Health Department protocol since we do have a school on site) and check to be sure. After an hour and a half, we had three suspected cases and I cashed in on the one live case we had.
Oh joy.
Parents were called. Siblings were pulled. We have one family that wants to treat (a suspected case) and come to our shin-dig this evening. I told her that my advice was to call the Health Department to ask their take on treatment and holding.
How were the kids? They were good sports. We didn't make a big deal about it. If they had what we thought or confirmed, they went outside to the bench and waited. If they were cleared, they colored on the mural. No one made fun of anyone else and no one panicked.
Still, I could have thought of may other ways that we could have had fun other than checking kids' heads.
For now, my head is tingly after having been highly conditioned with tea tree conditioner. K- is still under treatment. I figure that for the two of us, it can't hurt.
:scratch, scratch:
Oh, and this is post number 2 today. Read on.
ETA:
The child that had the live lice looking back at me and waving? Well, the parents checked her head, saw nothing, chose NOT to treat her and brought her tonight to the end of the week family gathering anyhow! UGH!!!! Really? Another suspected case came, but he was treated per instructions from the Health Department.
When we arrived home this evening, K-'s hair got checked and scrubbed -- again -- and is smelling tea tree fine right now. I was also told that the lice buggies don't like Garnier Fructis, which I have a whole host of product from, so I used that on her, too.
UGH! YUCK! ICK!
:scratch, scratch:
The VBS teacher asked my niece why her friend wasn't there today. She stated that J- was sick. The teacher inquired more as to what was wrong. That was when my niece whispered to her, "J-'s mom thinks that she found bugs in her hair."
At that point, we thought it best to pull the class (as per Health Department protocol since we do have a school on site) and check to be sure. After an hour and a half, we had three suspected cases and I cashed in on the one live case we had.
Oh joy.
Parents were called. Siblings were pulled. We have one family that wants to treat (a suspected case) and come to our shin-dig this evening. I told her that my advice was to call the Health Department to ask their take on treatment and holding.
How were the kids? They were good sports. We didn't make a big deal about it. If they had what we thought or confirmed, they went outside to the bench and waited. If they were cleared, they colored on the mural. No one made fun of anyone else and no one panicked.
Still, I could have thought of may other ways that we could have had fun other than checking kids' heads.
For now, my head is tingly after having been highly conditioned with tea tree conditioner. K- is still under treatment. I figure that for the two of us, it can't hurt.
:scratch, scratch:
Oh, and this is post number 2 today. Read on.
ETA:
The child that had the live lice looking back at me and waving? Well, the parents checked her head, saw nothing, chose NOT to treat her and brought her tonight to the end of the week family gathering anyhow! UGH!!!! Really? Another suspected case came, but he was treated per instructions from the Health Department.
When we arrived home this evening, K-'s hair got checked and scrubbed -- again -- and is smelling tea tree fine right now. I was also told that the lice buggies don't like Garnier Fructis, which I have a whole host of product from, so I used that on her, too.
UGH! YUCK! ICK!
:scratch, scratch:
Monday, October 5, 2009
5 1/2 hours of Jesus, an odd addiction to admit to and other miscellaneous information that you could care less about.
Folks, this is the first Sunday of the month during Festival Choir season. What does that mean? It means church in the AM from 9 - 11:30 AM. (Pastor was a little long-winded this morning.) Back to church for Festival Choir practice from 4:30 - 6 PM, then on to the monthly Leadership meeting from 6 - 7 PM. (That meeting ran over until 7:20 PM.) Y'all, Jesus is my man but yowza on the hours clocked at church today.
In tidying the counter from whatever it is that decides to eat it on a regular basis, (meaning, the Hubs "trying" to put dishes away, bailing and just leaving them in growing piles for me to handle), I found that in reconfiguring cupboard space, I would move my cookie sprinkles. (In PA, you call them jimmies, I think.) At any rate, I have 18 different containers of sprinkles. Since I buy them at the bulk food store in Amish Country, the little clear plastic containers are only about 60 - 80 cents. I have school buses, butterflies, shamrocks, leaves, fish, dolphins (they are mammals, you remember,) dinosaurs, cows (K- and Hubs picked them the last time,) chicks/tulips/bunnies & flowers, non-pareils in mixed all season and holiday colors, bears, snowflakes, little cinnamon balls, large granule mixed color, purple, pink and red sanding sugars, and one other that frankly, I can't recall. Y'all, I think that I need a support group. My sister says that she suffers the same issue.
I'm bailing on Menu Plan Monday, because last week worked out to be a festival of wastefulness. It is sad. I made a pot of ham and bean soup that grew exponentially. Seriously, the entire neighborhood could have come over, had some and there would have been leftovers. We also had stuffed rigatoni one night that I used some Alfredo sauce on. I still had some Alfredo sauce left on the next evening, so I made some corkscrew pasta to stir it into. A hunk of that went to waste. Another wasteful thing was the sloppy joes that I made. I ate those for 2-3 days in a row. (I can't remember.) I made them open face with the cheese on top, just like we had in grade school. They were good, but K- wasn't interested. (Made me think of Lily, Rachael!) I know that I'll be going to the Russian Festival with friends either Tuesday or Wednesday evening. I'll get my pierogies on then. For Monday's dinner, we'll have leftovers of the baked ravioli that we had this evening. Outside of that, it is all a crapshoot.
Sadly, I received an update on Tiana and Michael's bid to adopt Bahati from Tanzania. The Tanzanian government placed Bahati with a Tanzanian family for adoption. Tiana and Michael were given a continual run-around regarding the adoption. Frankly, it sounded as if the country didn't want to be losing one of its own and I'm not surprised by their decision. Still, this is one more family that I know of that has tried to internationally adopt a specific child that they have chosen, only to have it fall through. My friend, Heather and her husband Ryan, tried to adopt from Haiti 6 years ago. They flew in, picked out a beautiful child named W-. They told her that she would be coming to live with them in the United States. Political unrest prevented them from being able to bring her to the states. The paperwork couldn't even be safely transferred to the capitol, as the director of the orphanage feared for his life. W- still remains at the Haitian orphanage today. So very sad.
Speaking of Heather, she is stressed out at the possibility of her family moving to Ontario, Canada in as soon as the next few months to the spring/early summer. Her husband expressed an interest in taking an 18 month position with his company and being moved around a bit. Problem is that they have 3 boys in tow. Moving around every 18 months isn't as easy as what it sounds. They have an adopted son that has some attachment issues. As soon as he'll get grounded and comfortable, they'll have to move again. E- is in the 1st grade and C- just started preschool. They all love where they are going. They have a great church where they are very active. I'm good friends with Heather and will miss her terribly. Sometimes, we have those mommy AAAAAAAHHHHHH! chats in the AM before I leave for work. She's the one I had to rescue one night over a mouse. We've shared some goofy things over the years. We still will, no matter where they live. We'll just have to get girlfriend using e-mail. No Facebook for me. Ack.
K-'s Farm Field Trip was postponed the other day due to torrential rains. It was rescheduled for Monday. I had to take the day off, as I had already promised to be a driver. I also committed myself to RIF day at school, so I work 1/2 day on Tuesday. I should have a fine, fine paycheck coming up. That's okay. I need to help with the book passing and I would rather be there on the field trip to corral kids and whatnot. We don't have busing to take the kids, so we are going by parental transportation. The neighbors are going with us, but other parents are taking the rest of the kids. They scheduled it for Monday, so as to get the field trip in before the new booster law comes into effect.
Here's more information than you want to know. Remember how I'm kind of Edward Scissorhands with the nail clippers? Well, I got a little over-zealous with the toenail trimming and left myself close to bleeding. Yikes. Didn't mean to do that. So, I have sore toes! Now I know how K- feels.
Oh, here's something else! Has anyone else noticed the prices at Sam's Club going up each and everytime you enter the store? I had a whole list of items to purchase today. We only purchased about 1/4 of what we put on the list. Laundry soap has gone up a couple of bucks/box. Purell has gone up at least a dollar. Zantac went up a few dollars. A case of chicken broth went up to the point that as long as I watch for it to go on sale at the store, I can get it much, much cheaper. Their whole chickens were 85 cents a pound, which is a great price, but there was only one package left and I was afraid that it was a walk around and dump, so I didn't take it. Microwave popcorn went up 3.00 from the last time I bought it. Goldfish crackers went up several dollars, too. The same with dish soap. I'm better off watching for it to go on sale. The good news? Boca Burgers went down to $8.15/box of 16. That is a great deal.
More miscellaneous drivel. My mother-in-law picked up a few cute outfits for K- at Walmart. I was surprised to see the tag that said "95 % organic cotton." Hooray! I went to put one of the outfits on her this AM and found a size discrepancy. It was a two piece set with a 6 as a shirt and a 7 for pants. K- is a perfect 7 and the 6 wasn't going to cut it. I was glad that MIL passed the receipt on so that we could exchange it. I did find the same outfit (different color), so we were able to switch without a problem. The lady at the service counter was surprised by the sizing, though. I couldn't have been the first person to ever have a sizing issue.
I hit the motherload at Target in their dollar aisles for treatie doodles for Miss K-'s 6th birthday Star Wars celebration. Completely by accident, but totally thrilled about it. I was able to get push up crayons, magnets, stickers, a dry erase board for K- (she loves them) and a flicky front journal for her to write in. (Have I mentioned that she is walking around drawing and writing all. the. time?) Also, I was able to find plates and napkins! Those are kind of hard to come by, so I was thrilled. I stock piled some 4th o' July sale paper products that I found, so the blue will go nicely with the branded Star Wars stuff. Hubs found Star Wars water bottles for all of the kids at a local discount store (for 49 cents each), so I do believe that the party needs are basically done. I found some Star Wars scrapbook paper at a local craft store, so all I need to do is to download a Star Wars font (I found a few!) and get working on the invite. (Her birthday isn't until December 20, but we are tacky and send the invite in with the Christmas card that goes out the day after Thanksgiving. Saves on postage. Besides, I work holiday retail and have no want to re-enter that world when I get off work. I'd rather be at home baking cookies. So, all party prep is handled and done by the end of October. It is a crazy Virgo thing, but it works for me.)
I'm all over the place tonight. Can you tell I had an Excedrin Migraine earlier? I had a hazy front headache and I had 3 hours of church this evening. I had to do something to keep up!
Smiles in my day:
- K- reading a book with me tonight. It was filled with sight words, so I decided to give a stab at seeing how many she knew. She surprised me!
- K- picking up after herself and putting things away in the right creature home. Goodness sakes alive. She finally got sick of losing the things that she didn't tidy. Oh, and we got sick of confiscating the items and keeping them in our bedroom. The fix that came to me last night? I put everything away where it belonged and labeled the items with a post-it that said, NO. She knows the word NO and I told her that if it said NO, she needed to earn that back. I told Hubs that her having to look at what she lost will help to encourage her to pick up after herself, and will remind her that mommy and daddy aren't joking when they take the stuff away.
- K- was angelic this evening when I was at church. Hubs worked out and K- was on the next concrete pad over playing with Play Doh, drawing, writing in her journal, playing with dress up, Little People (still!), Hot Wheels, Barbies and babies. He said that she was good at picking everything up without being asked.
- The laundry basket is empty. Everything is laundered and hanging to dry. I have a basket of our clothes (Hubs and me) that needs to be put away, but K-'s clothes and the towels are put away. I'll deal with our clothes tomorrow after the field trip.
- Hubs cleaned out the refrigerator, did all the dishes AND! put them away! :)!!!
- Getting back to Festival Choir practice. I missed two weeks in a row (I normally don't miss at all, since I sing by listening and not so much by reading music.) Several people asked where I was and a few of them said about how I was very missed. It is good to be missed! I didn't think people cared so much! We're singing "Forever Gloria!" It's a nice change. Dale always does a great job. He asked us how the seconds (soprano) were coming along. I told him that we were limping along nicely. He said that you are never supposed to tell the choir director that you are limping. I told him that I was in church and I couldn't lie! :)
I think that I've exposed all of you to enough babbling for this evening. Have a wonderful start to your week!
In tidying the counter from whatever it is that decides to eat it on a regular basis, (meaning, the Hubs "trying" to put dishes away, bailing and just leaving them in growing piles for me to handle), I found that in reconfiguring cupboard space, I would move my cookie sprinkles. (In PA, you call them jimmies, I think.) At any rate, I have 18 different containers of sprinkles. Since I buy them at the bulk food store in Amish Country, the little clear plastic containers are only about 60 - 80 cents. I have school buses, butterflies, shamrocks, leaves, fish, dolphins (they are mammals, you remember,) dinosaurs, cows (K- and Hubs picked them the last time,) chicks/tulips/bunnies & flowers, non-pareils in mixed all season and holiday colors, bears, snowflakes, little cinnamon balls, large granule mixed color, purple, pink and red sanding sugars, and one other that frankly, I can't recall. Y'all, I think that I need a support group. My sister says that she suffers the same issue.
I'm bailing on Menu Plan Monday, because last week worked out to be a festival of wastefulness. It is sad. I made a pot of ham and bean soup that grew exponentially. Seriously, the entire neighborhood could have come over, had some and there would have been leftovers. We also had stuffed rigatoni one night that I used some Alfredo sauce on. I still had some Alfredo sauce left on the next evening, so I made some corkscrew pasta to stir it into. A hunk of that went to waste. Another wasteful thing was the sloppy joes that I made. I ate those for 2-3 days in a row. (I can't remember.) I made them open face with the cheese on top, just like we had in grade school. They were good, but K- wasn't interested. (Made me think of Lily, Rachael!) I know that I'll be going to the Russian Festival with friends either Tuesday or Wednesday evening. I'll get my pierogies on then. For Monday's dinner, we'll have leftovers of the baked ravioli that we had this evening. Outside of that, it is all a crapshoot.
Sadly, I received an update on Tiana and Michael's bid to adopt Bahati from Tanzania. The Tanzanian government placed Bahati with a Tanzanian family for adoption. Tiana and Michael were given a continual run-around regarding the adoption. Frankly, it sounded as if the country didn't want to be losing one of its own and I'm not surprised by their decision. Still, this is one more family that I know of that has tried to internationally adopt a specific child that they have chosen, only to have it fall through. My friend, Heather and her husband Ryan, tried to adopt from Haiti 6 years ago. They flew in, picked out a beautiful child named W-. They told her that she would be coming to live with them in the United States. Political unrest prevented them from being able to bring her to the states. The paperwork couldn't even be safely transferred to the capitol, as the director of the orphanage feared for his life. W- still remains at the Haitian orphanage today. So very sad.
Speaking of Heather, she is stressed out at the possibility of her family moving to Ontario, Canada in as soon as the next few months to the spring/early summer. Her husband expressed an interest in taking an 18 month position with his company and being moved around a bit. Problem is that they have 3 boys in tow. Moving around every 18 months isn't as easy as what it sounds. They have an adopted son that has some attachment issues. As soon as he'll get grounded and comfortable, they'll have to move again. E- is in the 1st grade and C- just started preschool. They all love where they are going. They have a great church where they are very active. I'm good friends with Heather and will miss her terribly. Sometimes, we have those mommy AAAAAAAHHHHHH! chats in the AM before I leave for work. She's the one I had to rescue one night over a mouse. We've shared some goofy things over the years. We still will, no matter where they live. We'll just have to get girlfriend using e-mail. No Facebook for me. Ack.
K-'s Farm Field Trip was postponed the other day due to torrential rains. It was rescheduled for Monday. I had to take the day off, as I had already promised to be a driver. I also committed myself to RIF day at school, so I work 1/2 day on Tuesday. I should have a fine, fine paycheck coming up. That's okay. I need to help with the book passing and I would rather be there on the field trip to corral kids and whatnot. We don't have busing to take the kids, so we are going by parental transportation. The neighbors are going with us, but other parents are taking the rest of the kids. They scheduled it for Monday, so as to get the field trip in before the new booster law comes into effect.
Here's more information than you want to know. Remember how I'm kind of Edward Scissorhands with the nail clippers? Well, I got a little over-zealous with the toenail trimming and left myself close to bleeding. Yikes. Didn't mean to do that. So, I have sore toes! Now I know how K- feels.
Oh, here's something else! Has anyone else noticed the prices at Sam's Club going up each and everytime you enter the store? I had a whole list of items to purchase today. We only purchased about 1/4 of what we put on the list. Laundry soap has gone up a couple of bucks/box. Purell has gone up at least a dollar. Zantac went up a few dollars. A case of chicken broth went up to the point that as long as I watch for it to go on sale at the store, I can get it much, much cheaper. Their whole chickens were 85 cents a pound, which is a great price, but there was only one package left and I was afraid that it was a walk around and dump, so I didn't take it. Microwave popcorn went up 3.00 from the last time I bought it. Goldfish crackers went up several dollars, too. The same with dish soap. I'm better off watching for it to go on sale. The good news? Boca Burgers went down to $8.15/box of 16. That is a great deal.
More miscellaneous drivel. My mother-in-law picked up a few cute outfits for K- at Walmart. I was surprised to see the tag that said "95 % organic cotton." Hooray! I went to put one of the outfits on her this AM and found a size discrepancy. It was a two piece set with a 6 as a shirt and a 7 for pants. K- is a perfect 7 and the 6 wasn't going to cut it. I was glad that MIL passed the receipt on so that we could exchange it. I did find the same outfit (different color), so we were able to switch without a problem. The lady at the service counter was surprised by the sizing, though. I couldn't have been the first person to ever have a sizing issue.
I hit the motherload at Target in their dollar aisles for treatie doodles for Miss K-'s 6th birthday Star Wars celebration. Completely by accident, but totally thrilled about it. I was able to get push up crayons, magnets, stickers, a dry erase board for K- (she loves them) and a flicky front journal for her to write in. (Have I mentioned that she is walking around drawing and writing all. the. time?) Also, I was able to find plates and napkins! Those are kind of hard to come by, so I was thrilled. I stock piled some 4th o' July sale paper products that I found, so the blue will go nicely with the branded Star Wars stuff. Hubs found Star Wars water bottles for all of the kids at a local discount store (for 49 cents each), so I do believe that the party needs are basically done. I found some Star Wars scrapbook paper at a local craft store, so all I need to do is to download a Star Wars font (I found a few!) and get working on the invite. (Her birthday isn't until December 20, but we are tacky and send the invite in with the Christmas card that goes out the day after Thanksgiving. Saves on postage. Besides, I work holiday retail and have no want to re-enter that world when I get off work. I'd rather be at home baking cookies. So, all party prep is handled and done by the end of October. It is a crazy Virgo thing, but it works for me.)
I'm all over the place tonight. Can you tell I had an Excedrin Migraine earlier? I had a hazy front headache and I had 3 hours of church this evening. I had to do something to keep up!
Smiles in my day:
- K- reading a book with me tonight. It was filled with sight words, so I decided to give a stab at seeing how many she knew. She surprised me!
- K- picking up after herself and putting things away in the right creature home. Goodness sakes alive. She finally got sick of losing the things that she didn't tidy. Oh, and we got sick of confiscating the items and keeping them in our bedroom. The fix that came to me last night? I put everything away where it belonged and labeled the items with a post-it that said, NO. She knows the word NO and I told her that if it said NO, she needed to earn that back. I told Hubs that her having to look at what she lost will help to encourage her to pick up after herself, and will remind her that mommy and daddy aren't joking when they take the stuff away.
- K- was angelic this evening when I was at church. Hubs worked out and K- was on the next concrete pad over playing with Play Doh, drawing, writing in her journal, playing with dress up, Little People (still!), Hot Wheels, Barbies and babies. He said that she was good at picking everything up without being asked.
- The laundry basket is empty. Everything is laundered and hanging to dry. I have a basket of our clothes (Hubs and me) that needs to be put away, but K-'s clothes and the towels are put away. I'll deal with our clothes tomorrow after the field trip.
- Hubs cleaned out the refrigerator, did all the dishes AND! put them away! :)!!!
- Getting back to Festival Choir practice. I missed two weeks in a row (I normally don't miss at all, since I sing by listening and not so much by reading music.) Several people asked where I was and a few of them said about how I was very missed. It is good to be missed! I didn't think people cared so much! We're singing "Forever Gloria!" It's a nice change. Dale always does a great job. He asked us how the seconds (soprano) were coming along. I told him that we were limping along nicely. He said that you are never supposed to tell the choir director that you are limping. I told him that I was in church and I couldn't lie! :)
I think that I've exposed all of you to enough babbling for this evening. Have a wonderful start to your week!
Friday, June 26, 2009
The week in review
This has been a long, tiring, sad and weird week. There have been happy things along the way, too.
- I've made a burning bush, devised a way for teachers to teach the 9 Plagues of Egypt to over 100 children, built a cardboard shack for Passover painting, raided my mother-in-law's herbs for parsley for the Seder plate and parted the Red Sea.
- Aunt Arlene died on Tuesday, which we are sad about. We are glad that her suffering has ended, though.
- I've had Chex mix breath all week. The snack folks we have on staff at VBS provide us with a morning basket of Chex mix. I get to it first and remove all the dark brown bread thingies and all of the wheat chex. Yum. Nevermind the frightening breath afterwards.
- Yesterday, I locked myself out of the house. This was as we were leaving for VBS in the morning. I had car keys, but no house keys. I hadn't hooked them to the carabiner on my purse when I used them the night before. Hubs was far out, about 40 minutes + away so I called our wonderful neighbor, Mike. He works for AT&T, was in a manhole and couldn't personally bail me out but did have me drive 20 minutes to his location, climbed out of the manhole, gave me his house key so that I could get my key and get back into my house. Since there was no traffic behind me, we conducted it as a drive by keying and all was well. Can I tell you how much we love having a neighbor like Mike?
- I saw a hummingbird nectaring at the milkweed Thursday afternoon.
- I was able to remove the baked on, caked on hairspray off of my bathroom floor. I've tried soaking it. I've tried using extra strong soap with bleach. I tried Lysol Bathroom cleaner. Finally, it dawned on me to use a Mr. Clean eraser. I was going to write about it on Works for Me Wednesday, but found that they make a Mr. Clean Eraser mop, so apparently some big-wig out there took my idea before I had it. :) It took an eraser and a half, but now it is sparkling again. I swear that no matter how clean my bathroom was, that darned floor looked filthy and negated any cleaning I had done. It was very disheartening to be finished, yet look like I hadn't touched the floor in a month of Sundays. I'm happy now. I even made Hubs stand and admire it.
- Yesterday I hung the sheets out on the line. Because of the unfortunate lock out incident, I was unable to get them hung out earlier. K- cautioned, "Mommy, I really think that you should keep those inside." "Nah. I think I have enough time." As soon as the last clothes pin was placed, rumbles of thunder rolled through the air. Crud. Back off the line and into the dryer. Ugh.
- The Japanese Beetles are back. We are going to have to run with a beetle bag to keep them from defoliating the Purple Plum this year. I've got my special spray (garlic, red pepper and something else) to spray on the tree. Argh with those beetles. They ate the whole tree last year. It was awful. They turned our little shade tree into a lace leafed variety.
- My tomatoes have blooms. Not big news to folks in other growing zones, but I'm pretty pleased!
- My peppers have baby peppers!
- Hubs and I were in our kitchen talking as I was preparing dinner. K- had run out back to catch butterflies with her net. I heard a loud THUNK! and ran back to check on her. She was fine and happily running with net in hand. The incident left me as soon as I knew she was fine. She wanted to go play in the driveway gravel and I said fine. I went up with her, checking pots for dryness when I hear, "Mommy, what's on our front porch?" It was a belly-up Robin that had apparently breathed its last breath not too long before. Ah! That was the thunk. She ran in to tell daddy about the dead bird, who was convinced that it was only stunned. I told him it had x's on it's eyes and the tongue hanging out. Soon the flies were going to swarm. Please get it off my porch! He did. We named it Suzy. She is now residing in our garbage can. Sad. Hubs believes that Suzy was being chased by a larger bird and smacked into the door. RIP Suzy.
- Ed, Farah and Michael. 3 in 24 hours. Wow. I think that is faster than anyone thought.
- I want to take a bath right now just something awful, but its lightning and I don't do baths in lightning.
- I got my excusal letter from the courts today. No jury duty for me! Hooray!
- No matter how much it rains, I still have to water the herb garden. The overhang on the house is too big and they just don't get an adequate drink.
- Apparently I was born in the year of the Ox. They were doing something at work and called to check on my birth year. Apparently, it wasn't a big sales day.
- I'm hungry. I want chocolate. PMS, perhaps?
- We have a VBS family picnic tomorrow night. I'll be a server lady and Hubs will be with K- as she eats, then plays on the bouncer slide. The bouncer slide? Use was provided to us at no cost. It is a rental from one of the preschool teachers. How kind!
- K- and I have been able to resume having our bathroom vase of flowers again. We both love a vase of flowers in the bathroom. We'll have one in there with fresh flowers all summer long.
- It was 91 degrees today. I know that isn't hot to many of you, but it was very humid, which made it feel even hotter. The hair? Oh, it is bound to my head right now. Mom was complaining about her hair Thursday. I told her to have mine during a humid day just once. She said no thank you.
- After my sister dropped the kids off to VBS Thursday morning, we sat on the floor, I was cuddling Leland and we were talking. One of the VBS helpers came through and told me how much more I needed another baby. "Oh you need another. You really do." God bless her, she kept going on and on. My sister's stock response anymore is, "Oh, she's just living vicariously." If the woman only knew.
- I must go mop my kitchen floor.
- A front was coming through and I ended up with a hum-dinger of a headache. Excedrin Migraine did not touch it. I decided to roll backwards, use Advil and it worked like a charm. I also watered my headache. Thankfully between the two, the headache went away. Yowza.
- I ran our bed sheets through a second rinse. I'm hoping that might help to resolve some of the facial breakouts that I've had going on. It's not bad right now, but geeze Louise! My skin was looking 15 again, only not in a good way.
- I'm rambling. Can you tell?
- My onions have bloomed an look very much like Allium. I may have mentioned that once before, though.
- We bought a new VCR/DVD recordable thing combo on eBay and while it came in lickety split, it is cracked. Bummer. I'm still awaiting word from the fine folks who sold it to us.
- Our LL Bean fire ring came in. Being a fire ring/grill is what made it legal for us to have in the city. The fire ring had been on back order for almost a month. We're excited to have it! :)
- Speaking of the Bean, on one of their daily markdowns last week, I purchased K- some shoes. I'm a finicky mom when it comes to shoes, especially "church" shoes. (She wears them to more than church, but that's what we call them.) I like rubber soles and as she gets older, they are harder to find. They were $34.50 marked down to $15.00. In fact, I just purchased these for her, as well. They were $9.99 and she LOVES! green. They'll look kicky with her uniform! She has brown ones in the same style that Hubs' mom bought her in January. I'm just keeping my eye out for winter boots for her. Their winter boots rock!
- Here is something that I found over at Homeschool Creations:
That's all for me. Have a great weekend!
- I've made a burning bush, devised a way for teachers to teach the 9 Plagues of Egypt to over 100 children, built a cardboard shack for Passover painting, raided my mother-in-law's herbs for parsley for the Seder plate and parted the Red Sea.
- Aunt Arlene died on Tuesday, which we are sad about. We are glad that her suffering has ended, though.
- I've had Chex mix breath all week. The snack folks we have on staff at VBS provide us with a morning basket of Chex mix. I get to it first and remove all the dark brown bread thingies and all of the wheat chex. Yum. Nevermind the frightening breath afterwards.
- Yesterday, I locked myself out of the house. This was as we were leaving for VBS in the morning. I had car keys, but no house keys. I hadn't hooked them to the carabiner on my purse when I used them the night before. Hubs was far out, about 40 minutes + away so I called our wonderful neighbor, Mike. He works for AT&T, was in a manhole and couldn't personally bail me out but did have me drive 20 minutes to his location, climbed out of the manhole, gave me his house key so that I could get my key and get back into my house. Since there was no traffic behind me, we conducted it as a drive by keying and all was well. Can I tell you how much we love having a neighbor like Mike?
- I saw a hummingbird nectaring at the milkweed Thursday afternoon.
- I was able to remove the baked on, caked on hairspray off of my bathroom floor. I've tried soaking it. I've tried using extra strong soap with bleach. I tried Lysol Bathroom cleaner. Finally, it dawned on me to use a Mr. Clean eraser. I was going to write about it on Works for Me Wednesday, but found that they make a Mr. Clean Eraser mop, so apparently some big-wig out there took my idea before I had it. :) It took an eraser and a half, but now it is sparkling again. I swear that no matter how clean my bathroom was, that darned floor looked filthy and negated any cleaning I had done. It was very disheartening to be finished, yet look like I hadn't touched the floor in a month of Sundays. I'm happy now. I even made Hubs stand and admire it.
- Yesterday I hung the sheets out on the line. Because of the unfortunate lock out incident, I was unable to get them hung out earlier. K- cautioned, "Mommy, I really think that you should keep those inside." "Nah. I think I have enough time." As soon as the last clothes pin was placed, rumbles of thunder rolled through the air. Crud. Back off the line and into the dryer. Ugh.
- The Japanese Beetles are back. We are going to have to run with a beetle bag to keep them from defoliating the Purple Plum this year. I've got my special spray (garlic, red pepper and something else) to spray on the tree. Argh with those beetles. They ate the whole tree last year. It was awful. They turned our little shade tree into a lace leafed variety.
- My tomatoes have blooms. Not big news to folks in other growing zones, but I'm pretty pleased!
- My peppers have baby peppers!
- Hubs and I were in our kitchen talking as I was preparing dinner. K- had run out back to catch butterflies with her net. I heard a loud THUNK! and ran back to check on her. She was fine and happily running with net in hand. The incident left me as soon as I knew she was fine. She wanted to go play in the driveway gravel and I said fine. I went up with her, checking pots for dryness when I hear, "Mommy, what's on our front porch?" It was a belly-up Robin that had apparently breathed its last breath not too long before. Ah! That was the thunk. She ran in to tell daddy about the dead bird, who was convinced that it was only stunned. I told him it had x's on it's eyes and the tongue hanging out. Soon the flies were going to swarm. Please get it off my porch! He did. We named it Suzy. She is now residing in our garbage can. Sad. Hubs believes that Suzy was being chased by a larger bird and smacked into the door. RIP Suzy.
- Ed, Farah and Michael. 3 in 24 hours. Wow. I think that is faster than anyone thought.
- I want to take a bath right now just something awful, but its lightning and I don't do baths in lightning.
- I got my excusal letter from the courts today. No jury duty for me! Hooray!
- No matter how much it rains, I still have to water the herb garden. The overhang on the house is too big and they just don't get an adequate drink.
- Apparently I was born in the year of the Ox. They were doing something at work and called to check on my birth year. Apparently, it wasn't a big sales day.
- I'm hungry. I want chocolate. PMS, perhaps?
- We have a VBS family picnic tomorrow night. I'll be a server lady and Hubs will be with K- as she eats, then plays on the bouncer slide. The bouncer slide? Use was provided to us at no cost. It is a rental from one of the preschool teachers. How kind!
- K- and I have been able to resume having our bathroom vase of flowers again. We both love a vase of flowers in the bathroom. We'll have one in there with fresh flowers all summer long.
- It was 91 degrees today. I know that isn't hot to many of you, but it was very humid, which made it feel even hotter. The hair? Oh, it is bound to my head right now. Mom was complaining about her hair Thursday. I told her to have mine during a humid day just once. She said no thank you.- After my sister dropped the kids off to VBS Thursday morning, we sat on the floor, I was cuddling Leland and we were talking. One of the VBS helpers came through and told me how much more I needed another baby. "Oh you need another. You really do." God bless her, she kept going on and on. My sister's stock response anymore is, "Oh, she's just living vicariously." If the woman only knew.
- I must go mop my kitchen floor.
- A front was coming through and I ended up with a hum-dinger of a headache. Excedrin Migraine did not touch it. I decided to roll backwards, use Advil and it worked like a charm. I also watered my headache. Thankfully between the two, the headache went away. Yowza.
- I ran our bed sheets through a second rinse. I'm hoping that might help to resolve some of the facial breakouts that I've had going on. It's not bad right now, but geeze Louise! My skin was looking 15 again, only not in a good way.
- I'm rambling. Can you tell?
- My onions have bloomed an look very much like Allium. I may have mentioned that once before, though.
- We bought a new VCR/DVD recordable thing combo on eBay and while it came in lickety split, it is cracked. Bummer. I'm still awaiting word from the fine folks who sold it to us.- Our LL Bean fire ring came in. Being a fire ring/grill is what made it legal for us to have in the city. The fire ring had been on back order for almost a month. We're excited to have it! :)
- Speaking of the Bean, on one of their daily markdowns last week, I purchased K- some shoes. I'm a finicky mom when it comes to shoes, especially "church" shoes. (She wears them to more than church, but that's what we call them.) I like rubber soles and as she gets older, they are harder to find. They were $34.50 marked down to $15.00. In fact, I just purchased these for her, as well. They were $9.99 and she LOVES! green. They'll look kicky with her uniform! She has brown ones in the same style that Hubs' mom bought her in January. I'm just keeping my eye out for winter boots for her. Their winter boots rock!- Here is something that I found over at Homeschool Creations:
That's all for me. Have a great weekend!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Spotty Spotterson
I'll be a tad bit spotty this week. I'm working and working Vacation Bible School-- eeek! It's always a terribly busy week. Add to that I forgot that I had been summoned for Jury Duty-- double eek!-- and I have to fax them information + a hardship letter from work. (They don't swing the additional make-up jury duty pay, thus I get out on hardship.) It's always good when you remember. I got the notification a few weeks ago, set it on the microwave to deal with it and remembered it today as I was driving into Pittsburgh. ARGH! [Hand over mouth.] Hubs says, "What?!" "Jury Duty!"
So, I'm in charge of decorating and right now I'm busy putting together the Nine Plagues of Egypt. The kids will get to Pick A Plague! when they come in the door and pin it to Pharaoh when their plague comes up. For the cattle plague, I really wanted the cute legs up cartoon I found, but the director really preferred the live cow. Killjoy.
Nonetheless, I'm buzy buzy backson this week. I'll be in and out. In the meantime, I must remember to bring the Burning Bush recording with me . . .
So, I'm in charge of decorating and right now I'm busy putting together the Nine Plagues of Egypt. The kids will get to Pick A Plague! when they come in the door and pin it to Pharaoh when their plague comes up. For the cattle plague, I really wanted the cute legs up cartoon I found, but the director really preferred the live cow. Killjoy.
Nonetheless, I'm buzy buzy backson this week. I'll be in and out. In the meantime, I must remember to bring the Burning Bush recording with me . . .
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